British-listed retailer Poundland is planning to open an additional 11 Dealz discount stores in Ireland over the next 15 months.
Chief executive Jim McCarthy said yesterday that this would create 250 to 300 new jobs at the company and involve an investment of about €1.75 million, bringing to 41 the number of Dealz shops the company has opened here since its launch in Blanchardstown and Portlaoise in September 2011.
It employs 750 staff in the Republic and has invested €8.3 million in its store network to date.
Of the new stores, Mr McCarthy said the “majority” would be outside Dublin.
He said the company is generating €50 million in annual revenues and sees continued growth opportunities here for some time to come.
“We think we can do more stores than that and we have a few years of growth left in Ireland,” he said, adding that the company is attracting 250,000 shoppers to its stores here every week.
Dealz opened its 30th shop in Galway Shopping Centre yesterday.
It comprises 9,000 sq ft of retail space and employs 30 staff.
“We had a great reaction in the first few hours of trading there; it was very encouraging,” he said.
Dealz guarantees to sell 97 per cent of its product at €1.49 – Poundland stores in the UK sell at £1 an item. It carries a large range of branded items across 17 different categories and is proving popular with consumers.
Source: Ciaran Hancock of The Irish Times on 27th September 2013
UK Retailer Matalan is launching a sports format, in a bid to tap into the market following the collapse of JJB Sports and have chosen Riverside Retail Park, Coleraine as the location for one their first stores.
The Skelmersdale-based retailer have agreed a tie-up with online brand Intersport, which will feature as part of the branding for the venture.
Mark Thallon Partner at Riverside Retail Parks letting agent TDK said “It’s great to have competition in the sports sector following the collapse of JJB, and we are delighted to welcome the first Sporting Pro in Northern Ireland. The opening of this store will give shoppers even more options and reasons to visit the Park as Matalan bring their expertise in the retail market into the Sports sector.
This letting also complements the recently opened Frankie & Bennys and Costa Coffee outlets with a further UK occupier who is new to Coleraine on the brink of signing up to commit to open in October thereby consolidating Riverside Retail Parks position as one of the provinces leading retail schemes.”
TDK retained retail client Dealz has opened its 27th Irish shop, creating 24 jobs in the north Dublin suburb of Finglas.
Located in the Finglas Village Centre, the shop brings the number of jobs created by the firm in Ireland to more than 630.
Discount retailer Dealz offers a range of top brands and established own-label products, most at a price point of €1.49.
The retailer is a part of Poundland, which has more than 440 stores in the UK. Outlets include Portlaoise, Killarney, Letterkenny, Limerick, Athlone, Cork, Cavan and Monaghan.
TDK’s retail client H&M have commenced shop fit works on two new stores in Ireland which are due to launch in the early Autumn.
New stores will open their doors in Letterkenny Retail Park, Letterkenny and Bloomfield Shopping Centre, Bangor in deals structured by TDKs retail agency team. Letterkenny will be H&M’s 13th store in Ireland and Bangor their 8th in Northern Ireland.
Commenting on these recent acquisitions Mark Thallon Retail Partner at TDK said “We are delighted to assist H&M with their acquisition roll out across Ireland and these stores add to the others we have acquired over the past 2 years in Lisburn, Newry, Londonderry, Kilkenny and Tallaght. H&M continue to open stores at a very steady rate in Ireland at the moment, and have several further exciting projects due to open next year which will complement their current store portfolio.”
Dealz is to open a large new outlet at Abbeycourt in Tralee, Co Kerry.
The company, which is owned by the Poundland, has acquired 650sq m (7,000sq ft) close to Tesco, Pamela Scott, Boots, Jack & Jones and Vera Moda.
Dealz will be creating 30 jobs when it opens its new store in late August. It already trades out of 27 stores around Ireland all of which have been acquired by TDK following Poundlands entry into the market just under 2 years ago in September 2011.
TDK participated in the annual BTW Shiells charity tag rugby tournament looking to retain the trophy they won at last years event.
They got off to a great start winning their group with four wins from 4. They were pitted against a strong BTW Commercial team in the semi-finals. After falling behind early on, they started to take a grip of the game and with some excellent scores triumphed to set up a final against a combined Osborne King and Carson McDowell team. With a good crowd gathered and the sun splitting the sky, the match was a tight affair with the opposition only managing to break clear of the TDK defence in the last minute to score what proved to be the winning point. This saw Team TDK finish runners up but a great effort from all involved..
Congratulations to Osborne King/Carson McDowell on their victory and to BTW on running an excellent event. We look forward to returning next year…!
Land Securities have commenced construction at the new Banbridge Retail Park which is to be anchored by a 70,000 sq.ft. Tesco Extra store and will open in Autumn 2014.
TDK have been appointed by Land Securities as joint letting agent for the Retail Park with London based Harvey Spack Field.
Commenting on this instruction Mark Thallon Partner in TDK commented, “Banbridge Retail Park is one of the first commercial retail developments to be constructed in recent times and represents a great vote of confidence in the Northern Ireland retail property market. TDK are delighted to be appointed
Banbridge Retail Park will sit directly opposite The Outlet Centre which comprises 200,000 sq.ft. and tenants include M&S, Next, Gap and Nike.
This leaves Land Sec with the remainder of the site to develop out and initially they are committed under to build the first phase of retail warehousing.
Land Securities is the UK’s largest commercial property company and a member of the FTSE 100. The company owns and manages more than 26 million sq ft of property, from shopping centres to offices, valued in excess of £11.7 billion
A copy of the scheme marketing brochure can be downloaded from the link.
Pets at Home has bought veterinary business Vets4Pets as it aims to extend its vets service to more than 500 in-store and standalone practices. Pets at Home chief executive Nick Wood said there was “a lot of growth potential” in the small animal veterinary market, which comprises 2,500 practices across the UK.
The acquisition came on the back of Pets’ purchase of equestrian multichannel business Ride-Away in December.
Vets4Pets operates 93 standalone practices and Pets at Home, which acquired the business for between £30m and £50m, plans to increase that number. The retailer already operates 116 – strong veterinary practice Companion Care – the vast majority of its surgeries are in Pets at Home stores – and Wood said it will work to integrate the two to create a strong player in the market.
For the year to March 31, the businesses had combined sales of £100m, of which Companion Care accounted for about 56%. Wood said: “We think we can grow to more than 500 Pets at Home stores and that there will be more vets than stores.
“Vets4Pets” is complementary to Companion Care and is an excellent strategic fit for Pets at Home. ”Wood said the businesses share the same business model – both operate their practices on a joint venture basis with individual vets.
Source: Retail Week April 12, 2013
W5Lite, the free, fun taster experience at The OUTLET Village, Banbridge recently unveiled a new and improved offering for families allowing them the opportunity to enjoy even more of W5’s great, hands-on exhibits.
W5Lite was launched in September 2011 as part of an initiative by The OUTLET and W5 at Odyssey to offer shoppers at The OUTLET a taste of what to expect at its larger cousin in Belfast with seven interactive exhibits. The concept, which is based at the Visitor Information Centre, has welcomed many visitors over the past 18 months and has been a huge success for both partners.
Building on this success, the team have recently collaborated on a project to double the size of W5Lite and increase the number of exhibits to over 20 to ensure it is truly reflective of W5 who, themselves, have increased permanent interactive exhibits from 200 to 250 this year. W5’s Head of Exhibitions and Design, Adrian Lutton is delightedwith new exhibits and hopes they will attract even more shoppers to The OUTLET.
He said, “We are delighted with the success of W5Lite at The OUTLET. We feel that the concept’s fantastic success over the past 18 months has been achieved by both partners wanting to work together to offer value for money and a real taster of what to expect at W5 and, of course, mixing high levels of fun with education. At W5 we are always striving for improvement and, with our changing calendar of events and activities, we try to offer something new for visitors every time they visit so why shouldn’t this be the case for our satellite experience at W5Lite?”
TDK have been appointed by North Down Borough Council to advise on the disposal of a landmark building within the town centre.
Bangor Leisure Centre has gone on sale as it will become surplus to requirements due to the construction of the new International Aquatics Centre and Leisure Facility, which recently opened.
The centre comprises a leisure facility on a site extending to 3.45 acres together with ample car parking. Originally built almost 40 years ago it lies discreetly amongst Bangor’s townscape.
Stephen Deyermond of TDK Commercial Property Consultants, said: “Bangor is the principle town in North Down and as such any opportunity of this magnitude will always be highly sought after”
“The site is ideal for a number of commercial and residential developments benefitting from its close proximity to the town centre, it’s positioning overlooking Castle Park, home of 150 acres of gardens and woodland and the close links to the local bus and rail terminals.”
The site boundaries are adjacent to Bangor Central Primary School, Bangor Nursery School and the local PSNI station. It has excellent development potential and previously benefitted from outline planning permission for the development of 85 apartments in 2 and 3 bed formats.
The deadline for offers is 12pm on April 29th.
